Maelstrom

Nor was fine. Jaron had been there before her, so Nor was already fed, and lazy. Zemma sat and rubbed her in all her soft places.

"Gonna let you go home, though." Zemma told her in Furyan. "I wont make you stay on this ship with me."

They would keep the ships in orbit, whether Fury was livable or not. They would need the communications and the defenses. Everything on the ground was likely to be rustic for the first few years, maybe a decade, as they pulled machinery from the ships to get started on the ground. Jaron said they wouldn't make the same mistake twice; technology was necessary for defenses.

"You're father was right, and we were too pig-headed to see it before it was too late."

It was the kindest thing anyone ever said about her father and it nearly melted her armor. She'd had to walk away on some pretense to keep the tears from showing.

You cry a lot more since you dropped Min.

That's not a bad thing, she told herself. She was safe to feel again. It was a luxury long denied.

So while there would always be a skeleton crew on all the ships, cycling down to the planet on their days off, Zemma would be the only full time member. Jaron didn't know she was agoraphobic yet. But Riddick did. There would be no log cabin for the 'missus'. Would he want to live that way? Did he even want to live at Fury at all? He'd never said. He'd said the journey to take back Fury would be interesting, not that living there would be.

He'd be safe from mercs there.

Safe was not necessarily his goal in life. She knew that. Nature of the beast.

Don't have to stay at Fury. There's a whole universe out there to explore.

And leave the only friends I've ever known? Leave behind the only goal I've ever had besides hide and survive? Rebuilding Fury was a good thing, she wanted to see it happen. It would justify her whole existence. Justify her father's sacrifice, her mother's death.

And where is Riddick in this fantasy?

Wherever he chooses to be.

And if it isn't Fury? Will you go with him?

If he asks. Yes. The only love I've ever known.

More important than friends, goals, a life's sacrifice?

Maybe.

Zemma wasn't going to get anywhere in this train of thought. It was the same thinking that had driven her from the suite. None of it was good, and none of it was Now. If she had to choose again between Riddick and Nor? She didn't like the answer to that. Riddick and friends? Same answer.

But would he choose to live in space and never set foot on a planet again?

She didn't like the answer to that either.

Time to go.

She wouldn't have any choices to make when Now gets here if she didn't learn to fly. Zemma called for the time on the scene wall. Damn it! She was very late. W'Rdah would have her hide if he could. Zemma rubbed her friend's ears and left, still ill at ease.

None of this is Jack's fault.

I know it.

She just brought the Now into focus.

I'm not mad at Jack. Damn it.

You're worried she'll take Riddick away with her.

I worry too much.

Zemma was running, but stopped soon enough to catch her breath. Poise, again. W'Rdah would have enough to give her hell about without showing up like some…

…kid

Zemma heard voices; Jack's talking to W'Rdah. She stopped to listen. W'Rdah was replying to her.

"Now, see, I got no problem killing this girl. But the Lord Marshal Riddick might not like it. Or maybe he'd just get over it?"

Zemma left fast.

So much for learning to fly.

So much for grinning like an idiot all day.

---

"Where have you been?" Anger.

Zemma froze. Her jaw hurt from clenching all day, her eyes sore from crying. And she just didn't have the ability to speak right now. She shook her head and twitched her shoulder: 'Nowhere.'

She headed for the bedroom; she was very tired, and it was very late.

"Not good enough. Come here." Command voice?

Zemma stopped and just sighed. She closed her eyes and counted. When she opened them Riddick was still sprawled in a big overstuffed chair in the blacked out seating area. He was mostly a big luminescent blob with her blue lenses up and tears held in check.

"Zemma." Softer now. "Come here." Still an order, just not the kind you give to servants and children. She moved over to him, her armor up and arms wrapped around herself. She couldn't look at him, she would break down.

"W'Rdah came to see me today. He said you didn't show up for drills." Flat, emotions held in check, waiting for the answer.

Zemma felt her whole body clench, and she couldn't stop the resultant trembling. She just looked at the floor and shook her head a little. There was too much in her head to try to talk. She'd lost the Now in the maelstrom of conflicting fears about her future.

"Jaron said he saw you, but you ran off."

Zemma only nodded again. She'd gone looking for Jaron, but he had been with Vaako, and they both had looked angry. Zemma didn't know why; she hadn't broken into Vaako's suite again. But it was just one more stress she didn't want to deal with right then. She'd found solace in the darkness of the bowels of the ship.

"Where have you been?"

Her brain felt like mush. She just wanted to sleep and hope things would look better in the morning. Riddick stood up so quickly and smoothly that Zemma cringed back; the big blue blob was going to crash into her.

"What the hell?"

Oh, yeah, anger again. Great.

Riddick grabbed Zemma by the shoulders and gave her a single abrupt shake. "Talk to me!" He growled, suppressing the actual yell that had been forming. Zemma just tightened up, muscles aching, into a rigid pillar. She couldn't begin to know where to start talking.

"This drama drummed up for Jack's sake? You afraid of me now?"